It’s never going to be the same for me at the Snow Ball Dance in Shelbyville or the Summer Festival at Nativity Church without the 3rd Generation Dance/Party Band playing. They have announced that after 39 years, they are breaking up. They were only teenagers when they started and Craig Dollar said “I didn’t even have my driver’s license yet.”
The band was started by six Holy Name (Beech Grove) students of the former Roncalli music teacher and longtime Holy Name icon, Jerry Craney. Mark Oakley is the only founding member left from the original group. Most of the guys went to Holy Name and or Roncalli High School. They are all good friends and enjoy making music together. Dan Fox told me “we just have too much fun!”
The name came from the fact they were the third band to come out of that era of Holy Name’s excellent music department. It developed into a very versatile band with keyboard, guitar, bass guitar, trumpet, trombone, saxophone and drums. They play off the audience and they want the dance floor full, so they play rock/pop hits from the 60’s through today, with a little country, rap, electric slide and a little disco thrown in. They’ll even do a polka on request. I personally have never seen a band that could sense what the audience wants and do it all so well — they are true entertainers! The amazing horn section is one thing that really sets them apart from any other band I’ve ever heard. A couple of my favorites songs they do is “Brown Eyed Girl” and “At Last.”
If you’ve ever been to a wedding on the south side or anywhere in central Indiana, you have more than likely heard the 3-G’s. They performed 36 gigs this past year and in the early days, they’d do 3 gigs a weekend. That’s a heck of lot of singin’ and playin’.
I first heard them when my husband and I went to the Snowball Dance in Shelbyville with my friend Norma Dollar (worked with her at Ayres over 20 years ago) and her husband Virg. Their son Craig had been in the band since ‘76. Norma and Virg are excellent dancers and more than once, I‘ve seen them be the first on the dance floor. We have followed the band like groupies wherever they play, and even though my first name is Mary, don’t tell anyone but I’m not even Catholic.
They enjoy what they do as much as the audience enjoys hearing them and when the horn section steps off the stage and parades through the dance floor, everyone gets so excited. I remember how incredible they sounded at the Indiana Roof Ballroom during Little Flower’s 75th Anniversary Celebration a few years back — wow, what an evening!
I asked founding member Mark Oakley (drummer) of a funny moment — he remembers running up on stage to do a drum roll for a church announcement and falling off the back of the stage — the guys will never let him live that down.
You ask why are they breaking up — the time has come, all but one is married with kids, and the lead singer has a grandchild that he’d like to spend more time with. They all have day jobs — engineers, computer programers, etc.
If you would like to hear the 3-G’s play one more time, they will be at Gallagher’s II (2310 W. Southport Rd.) Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9. They will also be at Holy Name Dinner Dance, April 13th (their very last performance together).
These are the most energetic, nicest bunch of guys you’d ever want to meet and I think the reason they’ve lasted so long is that they don’t take themselves too seriously and no one has an ego problem — so thanks guys for the memories…
